


Lost but Not Alone

by Unforth



Series: Tumblr Ficlets: Supernatural [11]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Feral Dean, Hiker Castiel, Hurt Castiel, If You Squint - Freeform, M/M, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 02:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10754697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforth/pseuds/Unforth
Summary: Tumblr ficlet written to the prompt: How about feral!Dean? Maybe he lost his brother and started to live in the wild? And Castiel was hiking and triped over his house? Or maybe hurt himself and Dean rescued him?





	Lost but Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rici_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rici_chan/gifts).



> The past couple weeks, I've taken prompts for short fics and written and posted them on Tumblr. I wanted to post them on AO3 as well but have been considering how best to do so. A quick survey of my subscribers and followers suggests that people would prefer if I post them all as individual stories and put them in a series together instead of as multiple chapters on the same file or any other of several options, so that's what I'm doing.
> 
> Please note that I generally do not take "out of nowhere" prompts, cause I don't have time, but I will sometimes ask people to send me ideas and I'll write them in the order I receive them. 
> 
> You can follow me on Tumblr at [unforth-ninawaters](unforth-ninawaters.tumblr.com).
> 
> Make sure you read the prompt! 
> 
>  
> 
> [~original post~](http://unforth-ninawaters.tumblr.com/post/160094540008/hi-for-the-prompt-thing-how-about-feraldean-i)
> 
>  
> 
> Prompt, from rici_chan:  
> Hi! For the prompt thing: How about feral!Dean? I know that some feral!Castiel got around awhile ago, but what about Dean? Maybe he lost his brother and started to live in the wild? And Castiel was hiking and triped over his house? Or maybe hurt himself and Dean rescued him?

“Stop,” murmured Castiel vaguely. His head felt packed full of wool, his body useless. Where was he? What had happened to him? Something was wrong - _very_  wrong - but he could muster no energy for anything beyond asking whatever animal was nuzzling at his face to knock it off. When there was no change, Castiel flailed awkwardly with a limp arm, trying to push whatever it was aside. His fingers glanced off rough, sparsely haired skin, but he was too weak to budge the creature.

“Nn.” The animal disagreed sharply.

_Animal…that was almost a word…wait, no creature has skin that feels like…_

Castiel’s eyes slipped open. Twilight showed him a forest, leaves rustling in the breeze, and the hunched over figure of what could only be a man.

“Wha?” said Castiel, struggling to rise. Pain lit electric down his arm and side.

“Nn!” hissed the…person?…shoving Castiel back down and hovering over him ominously, a black silhouette against the darkening blue of the sky. Agony and fear exploded through him.

“No…no, stay away from me!” said Castiel, trying to fight back his assailant, trying to rise. The man hissed again, grabbed Castiel’s hands, and forced them down. “Let me go!” He couldn’t move, couldn’t even struggle, he was so weak and the man was so strong and…the pain faded as he lay motionless.

The man wasn’t trying to hurt him.

The man was trying to keep him from hurting himself.

“Oh,” said Castiel, feeling a fool. Why had he immediately assumed the strange man in the woods was trying to hurt him?

_Come on, who wouldn’t assume that? I can’t even remember how I…_

Yes, he could. He’d been hiking, he’d lost his footing, he’d slid down a slick length of over-smooth trail, tumbled down a ravine…glancing to his left, he could see the hill he’d fallen down, see all the trees and shrubs he must have crashed into as he went. He could remember nothing after his head hit the ground.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, truly looking at his savior for the first time. “Thank you.”

This close, the man was filthy yet beautiful. His skin was grubby with dirt, his hair so matted that in the faint light Castiel couldn’t guess what color it was, yet there was something solid about him, something calming, and his eyes were wide, trusting, and concerned. He nodded once, firmly, stared Castiel down, carefully started to take his hands away, gave Castiel a _tsk_ and a movement that, no matter the language barrier, was meant to say _don’t you dare move_.

Castiel obeyed.

As the darkness deepened into deep night that didn’t seem to hamper the man at all, Castiel watched in wonder as this stranger, with his bizarre, hunched way of walking, jerky movements, rough skin, and kind touches, examined and bound his wounds.

“Thank you,” Castiel whispered again when the man finally finished. He felt better already, some mystery plant bound close to his skin by hempen twine and tree bark, and drowsy. “What’s your name?” No answer. God, Castiel was tired. “My name is…” he yawned. “My name is Castiel.”

“Na…” The man echoed, mouth over-emphasizing the sound as if using his lips so was alien to him. “Name…Dean.”

“Your name is Dean?”

“Hn,” said the man with a firm nod. He pointed at Castiel. “Cas…ti…Cast…el…”

“You can call me Cas,” Castiel suggested.

“Cas,” the man echoed. He pointed at himself. “Dean.”

Rising, the figure turned to go.

“No!” Castiel exclaimed. Dean froze. “I’m sorry…you’ve already done so much for me…but…but would you stay?” Glancing over his shoulder, Dean looked even wilder, his clothing hanging in ragged tatters about his shoulders. “Stay?” Castiel suggested, patting beside himself.

“Hsst!” Dean leapt back and held Castiel’s arm down.

“If you don’t stay, I might move…” Castiel lied. He couldn’t have risen if his life depended on it.

_If Dean doesn’t stay, my life might depend on it._

“Please stay?” Castiel implored.

Muttering under his breath, Dean didn’t reply, but he appeared to understand, for he lay down beside Castiel on the soft bed of leaves covering the ground, snuggled close enough that Castiel caught his musky smell, one part gross, two parts dirt, and the greatest part viscerally male and inexplicably appealing, closed his eyes, and promptly fell asleep.

“Thanks, Dean,” Castiel murmured. As hurt and afraid as he was, he’d somehow never felt safer. Matching the even, slow press of Dean’s chest against his side, Castiel fell asleep, wondering vaguely what the next day would bring him.


End file.
